


Maintenance

by raidbossmadi



Series: Twins one-shots [3]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games), Borderlands 3
Genre: Gen, Port cleaning, Sibling Bonding, good wholesome sibling content, mention of surgical procedures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22351303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raidbossmadi/pseuds/raidbossmadi
Summary: Troy always asks Tyreen for help cleaning the ports for his spinal implant, and she always helps because  they're all the other has.Just a cute sibling bonding drabble
Series: Twins one-shots [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566520
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19
Collections: People Like Us





	Maintenance

“You’ll let me know if I hurt you right?” Tyreen’s hands hovered over the release mechanism for her twins spinal implant almost hesitant to make contact with the metal surface. 

“tch, C’mon Ty you’ve done this before and you get like this every time.” Troy huffed his voice muffled slightly as he peered up from the pillow he was resting on.

“I just don’t want to hurt you.” She said recalling all the times she _had_ unintentionally caused her twin harm. Granted this wasn’t the first time he had asked her to help him with cleaning the ports of his spinal implant. It was something she was very familiar with and wasn’t all that difficult but still she worried about it anyway. She was just glad that he knew better than to ask her to help with the port on the base of his skull, that was one thing she _didn’t_ want to mess with the thought of messing up and causing him permanent harm was too much for her. _She had done enough of that already._

She took a breath to steady herself before her fingers made contact with the cold metal surface and she pressed down until a pneumatic hiss greeted her. The implant curled off Troy like a metallic centipede as it disengaged from the three ports along his upper spine.

It always surprised her how light it was as she placed it on the table behind her , especially since she had held his prosthetic arm before and it was anything _but_ light. Luckily he had already taken it and his shoulder plate off before he had requested her assistance. Her eyes catching and following the line of scar tissue that curled around his rib cage, the stark difference in musculature on the right side of his body compared to the left a reminder of just how much she took from him before they were even born. 

Her attention went back to the table as she unscrewed the top from a bottle of pink liquid, her nose wrinkled at the medicinal smell. 

“Ok stay still.” She murmured putting her left hand just below the first port to keep him held down as she pipetted a few drops of the solution into the port before swapping out the pipette with a cotton swab. She found herself holding her breath as she stuck it into the port, relaxing only when there was no yelp or sudden jerk from Troy. 

As she worked memories of when Troy had first gotten the implant flashed through her mind; bloodied bandages, the bruising around the ports. Surgery was _always_ a dangerous gamble with Troy, his myriad of health issues aside he healed _very_ slowly and with things like this Tyreen would only make things worse if she gave him a healing boost. Luckily they now had a doctor who specialized in Siren medicine which is why they had hazarded procedures like this at all.

Even knowing how everything had turned out she could still recall the mewling whines he had made anytime he’d been lightly jostled after the procedure even when he was higher than a kite on heavy duty painkillers. 

It was worth it in the end though, the last thing she needed was Troy’s condition getting any worse and the implant helped prevent that, it made him stronger , she could deal with worry that came up everytime she helped him with maintenance if it meant he would be less fragile. She’d accepted that her brother had would never be _normal,_ but less fragile was a compromise she was willing to make. 

“Uh Ty, everything alright?” Troy’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts as she realized she had zoned out and had been staring at the swab for who knows how long. 

“Oh, yeah, everything’s fine. Did you get caught out in a sandstorm without me knowing, it seems like there’s more sand in these than usual.” She remarked noting how much of it had yet to be dissolved by the cleaning solvent. 

“Nah, Ribeye knocked me down a couple days ago in the stables remember?” 

“Oh yeah, they’re so excitable at this age it’s cute isn’t it?” Ribeye and T-bone were two of the battle skags the priests were training up to protect the compound. Troy found the animals charming in a way that didn’t entirely appeal to Tyreen, they were almost as tall as she was and they drooled like they had fountains attached to their mouths. She did have to admit though that they were cute and watching Troy play with them was an adorable sight. 

“Just try not to, you know, make a habit of it. You don’t want to end up needing one of these replaced.” She chided. Could cybernetics ports even be replaced? Technology wasn’t her strong suit and she was sure if she’d gotten something wrong she was about to be chewed out. 

“Yeah I know, why do you think I’ve been bugging you to help me out here Ty? Having sand in my ports isn’t fun for me either.” He rolled his eyes and gave a surprised hiss as she thunked him on the back of his head. 

“Sorry bro, you know how it gets near the end of the month. Everyone wants me to bless their weapons or their crops and I’m just like _aye adorador, sólo quiero ir a ver a mi hermano_. Especially when you ask me to do something important like this.” She shrugged she had appearances to keep up, they both did but Troy got the excuse of not being the in public face the way she was. She did this on purpose and no matter how much she _knew_ he could resent her for it but she did it to protect him. 

No matter how many mods he added to his body or tried to hide his underweight frame under baggy clothing she would _always_ see her fragile twin who needed her to protect him from the world. Who hid behind her for protection even when _she_ could just as often be the one providing hurt. She _had_ to protect him, she had been the one who had left him unable to protect himself. 

“Yeah I know, and I really appreciate you taking time out of your _busy_ schedule to come and help me out. After all, you wouldn’t be the world's best twin if you didn’t, right?” He teased sitting up as he felt her screw on the last protective cap over his spinal ports. “So what favor am I gonna owe my kind and caring twin sis in exchange for this?” 

“Hm I dunno, hadn’t thought about it yet. Though I suppose if you really wanted to make it up for me you can get those let’s flays edited and uploaded by Friday instead of Saturday.” She said in a singsong voice and stretching as she stood up, “Really though you don’t owe me anything I help because I care.” 

Troy watched as his sister made her way to his kitchenette dumping the used swabs into the garbage bin and washing her hands. “Right so I’ve gotta go meet with the Priests and make sure our little construction project is on track. You let me know if you need anything else though Troy.” 

Tyreen made her way to the door and she hovered in the doorway for a moment when Troy called to her again. 

“Hey Ty,” He waited for her to turn her head to look back in the room. “Thanks, you’re doing your best.” 

At the end of the day despite pitfalls and disagreements they were still siblings, and the only family the other had in this strange and unforgiving galaxy. No matter how frustrated one could make the other feel they would always come back around. They were there for each other and always would be. 

**Author's Note:**

> Getting back into the swing of writing after coming down with some new years blues 
> 
> As always I am also available on [twitter](https://twitter.com/RaidBossMadi)


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